Megan Rapinoe for president? She'd beat Trump

In the days following the United States Women’s National Soccer Team’s World Cup win over the Netherlands on Sunday, much has been made over team co-captain Megan Rapinoe’s reply to being asked if she would accept an invitation to the White House. "I haven't spoken to everyone about it, obviously not myself, not Ali Krieger, and I suspect not many, if any, of the other players," Rapinoe said the day before the final match.

Almost immediately, commentators on the right tripped over one another to condemn Rapinoe’s remarks equating patriotism and love of country with support for a partisan president. Ann Coulter even got in the game on twitter attacking Team USA for a scrimmage match they played and lost against a younger male team.

With the 4th World Cup title now secured by the USWNT, what should Megan Rapinoe do next?

Since ratings played such an instrumental role in the campaign of the current president, Rapinoe could also capitalize on recent TV ratings from the World Cup tournament, which saw a record 14.3 million American viewers tuning into the final match with the Netherlands, crushing the previous record set by the men’s national team. The final season of Celebrity Apprentice in 2015 averaged approximately 7.6 million people and helped launch Trump’s presidential bid — demonstrating his leadership and ruthlessness in the boardroom. Nearly twice as many Americans witnessed Rapinoe’s leadership on the field, with fewer firings, of course.

It is clear then that Trump and Rapinoe are TV stars, with large social media followings, and eager and vocal supporters. The big question is how would they match up against one another in an election?

By this estimate, Trump, who has near-universal name recognition, polls in the low 40s nationwide, despite any hypothetical Democratic match up. This poll follows a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey which found Trump trailing former Vice President Joe Biden by 10 points, 53 percent to 43 percent, among registered voters.

This polling dynamic is most certainly behind Trump’s speech this week on the environment. As reported in the New York Times, internal polling by the president’s team illustrates that his administration’s record on the environment is a “key obstacle” for winning millennials and suburban women.

Writing in the Washington Post, Greg Sargent notes, “According to a senior administration official who reviewed the polling, Trump might not win voters who feel strongly about climate change, but it showed that a certain type of moderate who likes the economy might feel okay about Trump if she is persuaded he’s being ‘responsible’ on environmental issues.”

Similar to other campaign speeches the president has given, it was filled with distortions, mischaracterizations and outright falsehoods. From the same piece: “Trump absurdly took credit for environmental improvements secured under his predecessors. He also misleadingly claimed the United States is leading other countries in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, when in fact our reduction as a percentage of overall emissions — a much more meaningful metric — trails many others.”